The company’s profits jumped 18% to $4bn in the second-quarter, as the ongoing rebound in crude prices solidified its business producing oil and gas. However, this has been offset by the maintenance weighed on earnings in its division that refines and sells fuels like gasoline, whilst weaker profit margins in its chemicals segments resulted in strains on its bottom line.

Exxon Mobil is the world’s largest publicly listed oil company and its shares had been in recovery mode over the last number of month. However, following its latest quarterly report, the figures now clearly indicate that its stock price for the year has once again fallen back into the red.

Investors sent the stock down 2.8 percent to $81.92 on Friday.

Exxon's earnings per share came in at 92 cents, short of estimates for $1.27 in a Thomson Reuters survey of analysts. The company reported revenues of $73.5 billion, topping analyst estimates by about $900 million.

Neil Chapman, senior vice president at Exxon, stated that many analysts had expected that its profits would have been up by more than $1 billion based on the boost it would receive from higher oil prices alone. However, the maintenance in Saudi Arabia, France, the United States and Canada resulted in significant downtime during the quarter.

"What the analysts would not have understood is we had an enormous amount of planned maintenance in our business in the quarter, largely affecting our refining business.”

Exxon CEO and Chairman Darren Woods moved to dispel the pessimism being displayed towards the oil and gas behemoth by highlighting some of the key projects it is currently embarking upon - that he claims will return healthy profits to Exxon as part of its overall long-term growth strategy.

The CEO said, "Key projects in Guyana, the U.S. Permian Basin, Brazil, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea are positioning us well to meet the objectives we outlined in our long-term earnings growth plans. The high quality of these resources, combined with our strengths in project execution and innovation, will generate strong value over time.”